Intra-organisational relations and sustainable transport policy formulation in Finland

Finland among other countries of The European Union has repeatedly expressed its commitment to the principles of sustainable mobility. Member States and the European Commission are working together to develop a transport system that provides access to people, places, goods and services in an environmentally responsible, socially acceptable, and economically viable manner. Although there is no universally accepted definition of sustainable transport, all the different definitions given consider same kind of objectives relevant for sustainability. Generally, sustainable transport implies finding a proper balance between (current and future) environmental, social and economic qualities (e.g. Black et al, 2002, Haynes et al. 2004, JEGTE 2003, Litman 2003, OECD 1998, Richardson 2004, Ruckelhaus 1989, and UNWCED 1987). It is less clear which environmental, social and economic qualities should be guaranteed and balanced (Steg et al. 2004). The principles of sustainable transport relate to the latest revolution of transport policy formulation in Europe, also called the post-modern transport problem. According to Dugonjic, et al. (1993) transport issues and related problems can be divided into three categories: traditional, modern, and post-modern. Traditional transport problem refers to the everyday question for individuals/firms: how to get (or how to move goods) from one place to another? Traditional transport problem can be seen as a consequence of the rapid growth in demand for mobility, which accompanied the industrial revolution (Stough et al. 1997). The unforeseen increase in traffic has resulted in environmental problems and accidents, which form a key issue in modern transport problem, evolved in the mid-20th Century. The post-modern transport problem is typical of densely populated societies with congested networks and without much room for further expansion. This makes earlier solutions – increase of transport capacity – difficult to execute and in addition to that also former local environmental problems have been expanded into global sustainability issues relating to overall themes of economic efficiency and equity. Countries of the European Union are currently living, more or less, the age of "the postmodern transport problem". Stough et al. (1997) note that recently national competitiveness, economic development, technological leadership as well as sustainability issues have been added to the national transportation policy agendas. This broadening of objectives has brought some kind of vagueness into policy formulation and also expanded the range of relevant actors in policy formulation and operations. As a consequence, the traditional transportation institutional framework has forced to accommodate a wider than traditional range of objectives and interests at the same time, that there is a rapid change in transport technology. This again, has resulted new courses regarding e.g. production processes, governance and regulatory environment, managing transportation systems, territorial issues, new actors and stakeholders (Rietveld et al. 2003), which all contribute to involvement of new institutions of transport.